A California man has been charged with setting fire to the Oasis of Mara at Joshua Tree National Park/NPS

A paroled arsonist has been charged with starting a fire at Joshua Tree National Park that damaged historic trees and other park resources at the Oasis of Mara earlier this week.

George William Graham, 26, of Twentynine Palms, California, appeared in federal court Wednesday, a park release said. National Park Service rangers arrested the man at the scene of the fire Monday evening.

"Graham was observed watching the blaze and admitted to law enforcement officers that he started the fire," the release said, adding that, "(A)ccording to court records, Graham was known both to the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department and the National Park Service as a California arson parolee, with prior law-enforcement contacts with both state and federal authorities."

Graham was charged with unlawfully setting fire to trees, a felony offense punishable by up to five years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000. The man was detained in federal custody pending his next court appearance on April 11.

The Oasis of Mara is a cornerstone of the Joshua Tree National Park story.

The Serrano planted 29 palm trees

The oasis was first settled by the Serrano who called it Mara, meaning "the place of little springs and much grass." Legend holds they came to the oasis because a medicine man told them it was a good place to live and that they would have many boy babies. The medicine man instructed them to plant a palm tree each time a boy was born. In the first year, the Serrano planted 29 palm trees at the oasis. The palms also provided the Serrano with food, clothing, cooking implements, and housing. In addition, the palms are habitat for a wide variety of desert creatures from colorful orioles to the palm-boring beetle.

Indians, miners, & cowboys all used the oasis

Early American survey parties arrived at the Oasis of Mara in the 1850s and found the area under cultivation by the Serrano. Corn, beans, pumpkins, and squash were all grown with the life-giving waters that rise at the oasis along the Pinto Mountain Fault. The Chemehuevi settled at the Oasis in 1867 and intermingled peacefully with the Serrano.

By 1870, prospectors attracted to California by the discoveries at Sutter's Mill had drifted into the desert looking for gold. The Anaconda Mine began operation south of the Oasis in 1874. The Lost Horse, the Desert Queen, and other claims soon followed. Trees began to be cut at the Oasis, and water siphoned away to support the growing mining operations.

On the heels of the miners, cattlemen moved to the area in the 1880s to take advantage of the high desert grasslands of the Pinto and Little San Bernardino Mountains. The McHaney brothers ran an active cattle trade that was alleged to include stolen cattle that they pastured in isolated rocky coves near Hidden Valley. -- National Park Service